Building block



Jan. 3, 1950 A. J,- ARCHAMBAULT ed May .31 1946 lNVE/VTOR A. J.Archambau/f By M W Patented Jan. 3, 1950 UN ED;

BUILDING BLOCK Alcide :InArchambault, Nortli Qiiincy, Mass.

Anplieotion Mar-.31, 194e, .sc1ia1 Eta-673.308

4' Claims. (Cl:f46 26) The. present invention. relates to! building.blocks.

The object of. the. invention.isltdnrovidea set of toy buildingblockswhichceinbtt used-to provide arigidstructure .izisimu18lti0n--0..'an-.

desired design. and which. will aflordhmusement. andinstructian in. the.process of assembly.

With this object in view the invention-com rises the. blocks.hereinafter described and-particularly definedin. the claims.

n the a omnan nsdtawm s Fig- 1 is a per spectiveview oia. typicalstructure built. with: blocks of the presentinvention;Fi tzillustratos.the manner. of. joinin the blocks; Fig- 31s atdia ram illustratingthemanner in-whioh the holes are placed; and-Figs..4 andhareviews-.of-special. blocks for roof structures and the like.

The invention comprises aseries ofvhlockshaving holes arrangedparalleltomutually perpensdicular. axes. but offset in suchamanner that the holesno not intersect. It isthus; possiblettwkeltz the structure togetherbrmeans cinemas. exatending in all three dimensions: funds 1 mental unitof the systemhcomprises 1a, cube -inn dicated at. a Fig.3.... Otheretbicclts are -2e d l cu 8-Qf-.Fige3-tor which thelengthm is twice eachend dimensionhawemes:bloels N- shown in Fig. 2, andvthespecial-hwedgezblocks l2 and M of Fi s-4 and 5. Stillothertl'm coma--prise the ridge .blocksl 6 and halfscubes .13, rota The manner of boringthe holes: is -firstillus-i trated in connection'withthecuhei. s shownin Fig. 3,. the cube is providedt-with; threeholes.

2c, the centers of which'are diagonallymffisct:

from the centers 22 of the faces of the cube. The. manner of the oiisetisimportant in orderthat the blocks may be made to reg ster for Properinsertion of the dowels in the building of the structure; Thus, thedot-and-dash lines shown 40" oblique plane determined'bythe-dot-and-dash 50 lines. For the double cubes of Fig. 3, it observedthat the sets of holes likewlse have-their centers 'on lines which fo mohli iue planes-d3 and C. These planes are all parallel. The planes Theamount of are analogous to the cleavage planes of certain 05 crystals,and are here, termed determinant. planes. .For. ioininetwo blocks,suchasthe blocks ligand & ot-Figfi it is essential that thedeter minantplanesheparallel order..that holesor, he. two .blocks. wi11"registerhto.permitiinsertion or. a. securing dowel. .It. is nec s ary for: thebui1d-.- ante-orient the. blocks in the proper manner foralienment...and .thispromotes accuracy in, visual izationof threedimensional bo i s-- 7 To faeilitate-the, start of he first course, a.numbers; corner. blocksv .l 0 .oiFie. 2. maybe pro vided-' These are notessentialsince each com prises asingle blockwhich. the. sameas two I of.the. blocks 8,- arranged in the pr per. manner. at

"the. 80111913 The orientation otthe hol s is important. For the cube6.. there are. two possible -.0rientations. It. will u e observed thatin following around, the 1ine..-.4l the. ho1es.. .z0 1 are. offsetclockwise from the face centers 22. It would be possible 130.. onset thehc1es..-s0-that their. centers-would be displa edounter=clo lwis.e .fromthe face centers. Suoh hoiecenters would appear a he:

positions indicated hythe crosses 24. Either the. clockwise or.counterwlcckwisedisplacement. or P der maybe used, butthe invention;contemplates. that all. of the blocks. in the set. be provided withholes offset in the same order:.ar0und the. dc,

erminantnlanesa In these herein shown,;-the clockwise order is used.When, a single-order is. used he simple cubical blockisunique; that is,it. may always be turnedinsuch a. dir ction-that it.- will key wi h any-.a iacent block-- The multiple cube, typifi dy he double cube mus-alsounique, in-that 0ne-sing1eformcanbo used throughout. Any. number.- of.SHQhzrblOGkS cane keyed. oge her in all three-.dirnensi. ns=

It is only essential that the. determinant: planes: f. all the blocksbeparallel'lsubiect tothecom dition that the displacement orderofthchole centers be theeameior all. the blocks; .-as a-bcxze described).7

turet The corner blo ks lll:aranot i unique construction. As heretoforenoted; ea h cornereblools; missile-equivalent of: two double cubeszfi,but

thereareseverahways-imwhich two blocker-may. be ioin d te lform 21260136! block,- even: thought. parallelism-ct the. determinant planes: .is:maine;

tained. One such corner block is preferably included in the set as astarting block for one Since ttheeeterminant planesare preferahly" notindicated by any mar-kins on the blocks, someiexperimentation: may berequired o findthe correct. position of any block. :andthisvromotesinterest in-huildingevena imp e struo corner, and is preferablymarked to show that one face should be started down; this is done tolimit the necessary number of roof blocks, as will be explained later.If desired, two or four composite corner blocks may be provided, butthey must be made with a proper relation of their components so thatthey can be keyed together by dowels passed through the holes in allfour directions.

The start of the building is indicated in Fig. 2 showing how therectangular block is fitted adjacent to the corner block I 0. The blocksare keyed together by horizontal dowels 24 and 26. Vertical dowels 28may be applied to the blocks to hold the adjacent courses. It will beunderstood that after a course has been applied to the dowels 28,horizontal dowels may then be passed through the horizontal registeringholes of the second course. The additional blocks may be keyed to thestructure in a three-dimensional fashion by passing dowels through thethird set of holes in any of the blocks.

The wedge or pitch-roof block [2 is what would be obtained by dividing adouble cube 8 on a diagonal plane D. Since the diagonal plane D does notcorrespond with any of the determinant planes A, B, etc., there are fourpossible planes like D along which the out can be made. Thus there arefour possible hole arrangements for a wedge block I2. To make a pitchroof only two of these forms are needed, if the building is started witha certain type of the starting corner block ID. The same applies to thehalfcubes [8 and the special blocks 30 which may be termed one-and-halfcubes. If the starting course were not formed with a definitehole-arrangement, it might be found that neither of the two forms wouldkey with the side wall, and this would require that the set be suppliedwith all possible arrangements of wedges, half-cubes, and one-and-halfcubes.

The ridge blocks [6, being symmetrical, may be considered unique; thatis, one form will serve for most arrangements. The eave blocks M areasymmetrical in all directions; each block comprises four cubes, threeof which are slabbed off on diagonal planes. If a block I4 is placed ateach corner, four different hole arrangements are obviously required.

The set is flexible in that many different types of buildings may beconstructed. The first course is started as shown in Fig. 2, andadditional courses are added as desired. The structure may be keyedfirmly by dowels passed through the holes in any or all of the threedimensions. It is not usually necessary to put dowels through all of theholes. Window and door openings may be left, as shown in Fig. 1, and thestructure will have sufiicient rigidity from the dowels which passthrough the blocks forming the window and door frames.

As hertofore noted, the basic unit is the cube, which is unique if aclockwise or counterclockwise displacement order has been decided upon.The centers 22 of the cube faces may be taken as the points of emergenceof a set of mutually perpendicular coordinate axes from the cube. Thecenters of the holes 20 are disposed on the line A which is theintersection of the determinant plane with the cube faces.

All other blocks in the set may be considered as variations of thesimple cube. Thus other blocks may be made by simply combining cubes,and still others by cutting the cube combinations 5 with the faces ofthe elemental cubes.

construct a composite block out of elemental cubes and thereafter cut orturn the block to the desired shape, since the block may be initiallyformed in the desired shape and the holes bored afterward, so long asthe hole placement is determined by the principles above outlined.

Although round holes are preferably used for convenience of manufacture,holes (and dowels) of other shapes may be used if desired.

Having thus described the invention, I claim:

1. A set of building blocks comprising a plurality of blocks havingholes therethrough in three directions, the axes of the holes beingmutually perpendicular but non-intersecting, the centers of threecorresponding holes, where they 5 appear at the surface, being offsetfrom the face centers along diagonals lying in an oblique plane, anddowels to pass through registering holes of several blocks to holdtogether a structure built from the blocks.

2. A set of building blocks comprising a plurality of blocks havingholes therethrough in tln'ee mutually perpendicular directions butnonintersecting, each block including an elemental cube, the holecenters at the cube faces lying 5 in oblique determinant planes passingthrough corners of the cube, the hole centers being displaced from theface centers in the same direction.

3. A set of building blocks comprising a plu- 40 rality of blocks havingholes therethrough in three mutually perpendicular directions butnonintersecting, each block being constructed of elemental cubes in eachof which the centers of the holes at the cube faces are disposed inoblique determinant planes passing through corners of the cube, wherebya number of said blocks having parallel determinant planes may be keyedtogether by dowels passed through the holes.

4. A set of building blocks comprising a plurality of blocks havingholes therethrough in three mutually perpendicular directions butnonintersecting, the several blocks comprising cubes and blocksincluding elemental cubes, in each of which the centers of the holes atthe cube faces are disposed in oblique determinant planes passingthrough corners of the cube, whereby a number of said blocks havingparallel determinant planes may be keyed together by dowels passedthrough the holes.

ALCIDE J. ARCHAMBAULT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS

